‘The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop’ celebrates the artists who painted some of film’s most famous scenes

Remember the evening panorama over Central Park in the original “Ghostbusters” from 1984? And the dramatic Manhattan skyline from the 1949 film of “The Fountainhead”? In both movies, painted backings often stood in for the city itself.

In “The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop,” to be published Nov. 1 by Regan Arts, the unsung artists who created some of cinema’s most enduring images take a long-overdue bow. Authors...